Doctor Who Social Club
A community for discussing all things Doctor Who.
Rules
1 Be constructive
All posts/comments must be thoughtful and balanced.
2 Be welcoming
It is important that everyone from newbies to longtime fans feel welcome, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.
3 Be truthful
All posts/comments must be factually accurate and verifiable. We are not a place for gossip, rumors, or manipulative or misleading content.
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If a polite way cannot be found to phrase what it is you want to say, don't say anything at all. Insulting or disparaging remarks about any human being are expressly not allowed.
5 Spoilers
Utilize the spoiler system for any and all spoilers relating to the most recently-aired episode. Spoiler protection will not be granted to information that is out in the mainstream media.
6 Keep on-topic
All submissions must be directly about the DW franchise (the shows, movies, books, etc.). Off-topic discussions are welcome at c/Quarks.
7 Meta
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Upcoming Episodes
| Date | Episode | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 05-10 | DW 2x05 | "The Story & the Engine" |
| 05-17 | DW 2x06 | "The Interstellar Song Contest" |
| 05-24 | DW 2x07 | "Wish World" |
| 05-31 | DW 2x08 | "The Reality War" |
| TBA | TWB 1x01 | TBA |
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This is such a good episode. The mood from the very beginning is great, and it's got a kind of tension that leads right up to the reveal of the Dalek. This is another reveal that really early on made me hate the "next time" trailers, because it interrupts your ability to emphasize with the unknown Metaltron being tortured. Watching it for the first time I knew what the Daleks were, so it didn't bother me as much that it was being imprisoned and controlled - it's a deadly killing machine. But that's not why its in prison, being controlled, it's there because Van Statten is a horrible human being.
Van Statten is a great character. It can be very easy to verge off into cartoon villain territory with his type, but here I think it got the tone of overly confident self assured rich person you love to hate just right. In 2000s, we thought that in the future they'd be in bunkers, hiding away doing their evil deeds behind the scenes. Instead, nowadays they're just openly evil out for everyone to see. When the doctor and his assistant plane him towards the end of the episode, that makes for a very satisfying ending. (Van Statten owns "the internet" - I wonder if he got conned into buying a little black box with a blinking light on top?)
The way the doctor is written and directed in this episode is fantastic. It's a complete role reversal from what we normally expect. Often the Dalek (and Rose) take the position of the caring emotional one, and the Doctor is consumed by hatred. It's nice that we see more of the background of what makes 9 who he is, and that he finally gets some sort of absolution to move on a bit, all the better that it comes from a Dalek pointing out that he is capable of love again.
I felt that this episode was trying to push a kind of romance, or at least light infatuation, between Rose and Adam, which just bugs me to no end. Rose still has an interest in Mickey at this point, there's a budding relationship (not really romantic at this point) with the doctor, and Adam is just a completely unlikeable character. He obviously knows that his boss is torturing this alien, and he goes along with it because he gets to play with cool gadgets and have his ego stroked. Rose has more chemistry with the Dalek in this ep than she does with Adam.
The Dalek itself is great. The gold redesign looks amazing and less plasticky than the white and blue of old. The CGI is pretty good too. The contrast between the broken dalek that can't even do a full 360 with it's eye stalk, and later having some glamour bullet time shots as it rotates it's middle section all the way around is really cool. The direction of having some of the deaths happen off screen with screams echoing down a corridor, and the Dalek being smart enough to use water to electrocute hundreds of people at once really adds to the fear, because an episode of death after death can get a bit much, so the variation helps.
Really good episode, and it has a nice message driving throughout that you should question your instincts. Also it continues a running theme of RTD's in doctor who that a lot of the problems that happen do so because of greed.